Michele Pezzoni

 

Authors: Sofia Patsali; Michele Pezzoni; Fabiana Visentin

 

Abstract:

Early-career scientists are often asked to prove their research independence when applying for academic positions or grants. However, only a few large-scale empirical studies investigate the factors leading to research independence and the link between research independence and academic success. Drawing upon unique data on the entire population of French STEM PhD students who graduated between 2004 and 2013, we explore the factors leading PhDs to pursue independent research from their supervisors during their PhD training period, and how independence links to their future career outcomes. Using an advanced neural network algorithm, we measure independence as the content dissimilarity between PhD student thesis and supervisor’s publications content. We find that independence is significantly associated with student’s characteristics such as gender, age, nationality, and supervisor’s academic profile. We also find that student’s independence predicts the probability of starting an academic career and, conditional on starting an academic career, a higher number of articles published during the 5 years after graduation. However, the higher scientific productivity in terms of quantity comes at the cost of receiving fewer citations and having a lower probability of obtaining an academic position in a foreign country or the US.